UPA claims to have '280 plus votes'

{image-left+upa_16072008.jpg news.oneindia.in}New Delhi, Jul 16: Congress president Sonia Gandhi met senior party leaders, including Union Ministers and reportedly discussed the dynamics for winning the trust vote on July 22.

Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Home Minister Shivraj Patil, Minister of State in the PMO Prithviraj Chavan and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi attended the meeting. Ravi claimed that the government has the support of "280 plus" members and would comfortably sail through the confidence vote. In order to win the trust vote, the UPA ought to have 272 votes in the 545-member strong House.

On Tuesday, senior BJP leader Vijay Kumar Malhotra claimed that the Congress-led UPA Government was bound to fall on July 22 because "the ruling coalition was not able to cobble together more than 250 members in the Lower House of the parliament".

Malhotra, the party's deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, said that a few small parties, and even a section of the Congress MPs (in Lok Sabha), were in constant touch with the BJP and were ready to vote against the Government during the trust motion over the Indo-US nuclear deal.

He, however, did not divulge the names of the political parties and the Congressmen.

ANI